About Dr. Ellie

Hi, and welcome! I'm Dr. Ellie.
I have a doctorate in educational psychology. For over 13 years, I taught middle school level special education, reading, and social studies. My special education specialties include learning, behavioral, and emotional challenges.
For 12 years, I taught at the post-secondary level, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. My main area of university teaching is research and educational psychology, and I consult on dissertation methods and analysis. Most recently, I was a mentor of doctoral learners at the University of Phoenix. Currently, I am residing in the country of St. Maarten in the Dutch Caribbean, where I have become involved in special education consulting.
Hobbies include reading (especially reading and critiquing young adult fiction), quilting, and crochet. I also enjoy walking, art museums, great music (from classical to contemporary), and exploring new local places. I love photography, and am trying my hardest to become a passable picture snapper.

Teachers, for those of you counting down to Digital Learning Day (6 days and counting down…), here are some lessons, complete with plans, that have been developed for the DLD Team. I received them as part of an organizational email, and thought you might be interested. The links are active, but will probably take you to a registration page. The registration is free, and the lessons may be created by some of the Alliance for Excellent Education sponsors, along with some interesting advertisements from sponsors, such as Intel. However, the materials and ideas included are interesting and useful, and offered with lesson plans(!). For many of educators, paging down through some ads is worth the materials that are offered.

Enjoy!

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Awesome, Brand-New, Interactive Science Lessons Available!

In addition to the great ideas you will find in the teacher toolkits, the Digital Learning Day team is pleased to offer Digital Learning: Lessons in Action. These lessons incorporate multiple strategies with digital learning, such as collaboration, personalized learning, project-based learning, flipped classrooms, virtual access to experts, and simulations.

Check them out at Try a Lesson Now! If you like what you see, try one of these lessons and blog about it as we lead up to Digital Learning Day. Join the tens of thousands of educators who will tailor these lessons for use in their classrooms on Digital Learning Day and beyond.

Successful Student Book Review Blogging – In order to promote independent reading and scaffold the language arts curriculum, students write and post book recommendations on their school-based book review blogs. Video IntroductionLesson Plan

Visual Book Report – Students will use primary source images or videos in order to create a book report/book trailer.Video IntroductionLesson Plan

Intel® Teach Elements—Online Professional Development Courses help K–12 teachers of all subjects learn to engage students with digital learning, including digital content, Web 2.0, social networking, and online tools and resources. This professional development empowers teachers to integrate technology effectively into their existing curriculum, focusing on their students’ problem solving, critical thinking, and collaboration, which are precisely the skills required in the high-tech, networked society in which we live. Intel Teach Elements courses are free, just-in-time online courses that you can experience anytime, anywhere, and are designed to prepare teachers for transition to the Common Core State Standards.

Awesome, Brand-New, Interactive Lessons Available!
We encourage you try one of these lessons and blog about it as we lead up to Digital Learning Day. Join the tens of thousands of educators who will tailor these lessons for use in their classrooms on Digital Learning Day and beyond. Try a Lesson Now!

Today’s lessons are:

Hunger Games: Avoiding the Path to Panem – After reading the novel and researching their social, poliitical, environmental, or economic theories of why Panem occured, students write an informative essay.Video IntroductionLesson Plan

Inquiring Curiosity and Developing Inquiry Based Research Projects – Effective ways to ignite curiosity at the beginning of inquiry based research projects.Video IntroductionLesson Plan

It is never too late to help your child learn good study habits. Homework, although sometimes a challenge, is part of the learning process and depends on a child practicing skills learned in the classroom. Studies have shown that homework and school grades go hand in hand. The more time quality time spent on homework, the better the grades. Note the emphasis on quality over quantity. Your child does not have to spend a lot of time for the homework to be effective; the child simply needs good study skills.

Check out “Homeroom“–the blog site for the U.S. Department of Education. Explore more than this one post, though. There is a lot of good information that can help your child succeed with flying colors!

Teachers, make sure your students know how, what, and where to study for optimal performance. Practice of good study skills leads to faster learning and homework preparation. All kids want to learn to save time on their homework. Show them how.

Great news was announced earlier this week: high school graduates rates rose to the highest point in almost 40 years. Even more encouraging is that graduation rates among Hispanics jumped “almost 10 points since 2006,” according to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. The information comes from a new report from NCES (the National Center of Education Statistics) on 2009-2010 graduation and dropout rates entered into the Common Core of Data.